Pages

Thursday, 28 February 2013

As you may know I was up in London this week and with the weather not really playing ball decided that a trip around the underground network was probably my best bet at some half decent images. I have seen many images of many different stations from a few other photographers I follow on Flickr which inspired me to go look for myself.

There really is a wide array of architecture here ranging from the 20s and 30s right up to new stations being built today so you will always find something of interest to photograph and as is our job to document.

I hope to get out more often than I have of late and really look forward to the better weather ......please !!

This image is of the travelator at London's Waterloo underground station, I just really like the strong colours of the yellow adverts and the blue lines mixed with the modern steel and space age looking roof all vanishing off into the distance.

Don't forget you can always follow me at any of the other sites I use, links are at the top of the blog. Thanks for looking

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Swiss Cottage tube station is a London Underground station at Swiss Cottage. It is on the Jubilee Line, between Finchley Road and St. John's Wood. It is in Travelcard Zone 2 and on the Finchley Road

The station was opened on 20 November 1939 on a new section of deep-level tunnel constructed between Baker Street and Finchley Road when the Metropolitan Line's services on its Stanmore branch were transferred to the Bakerloo Line. It is named for a nearby pub, built in 1803-4, originally called The Swiss Tavern, and later renamed Swiss Cottage.
The new station initially operated as part of a combined station with the Metropolitan Line's adjacent sub-surface Swiss Cottage station (platforms 1 and 2 were Metropolitan Line and 3 and 4 were Bakerloo Line) but the Metropolitan Line station was closed on 17 August 1940
The station was subsequently transferred along with the rest of the Stanmore branch to the Jubilee Line when it opened on 1 May 1979. It is geographically close to South Hampstead station, but is not treated as a validconnection.

The platform design remains the same as when opened in 1939, and was designed by Harold Stabler. In 2006 the tiles were cleaned up and replaced.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above info

Been to this station before but never saw these great vibrant colours being cast on the roof. With a bit of post work I managed to enhance them and make the picture really pop.

There really is some great architecture below London so next time your up there just take a few moments to look around you and take in some of the architecture that is all around you.

With the release of the latest Bond film Skyfall being this month (February 2013), London's Bond Street underground station was done up as one big advert for the release.

I felt like a bit of a spy myself trying to get this shot, above, without being seen , I did want it without any people but this is such a busy station I think I could have been there all day and still not find the right time to get the shot.

The shot below was a little easier to time between waves of people streaming through this area out to the escalator shot above.

Skyfall at Bond Street London

Bond Street station is going through a bit of a makeover in general as it will be part of the London Crossrail Project so the station is being improved and expanded to accommodate the extra foot fall.

The station was first opened on 24 September 1900 by the Central London Railway, three months after the first stations on the Central Line opened. The surface building was designed, in common with all original CLR stations, by the architect Harry Bell Measures.
In 1909, Harry Selfridge proposed a subway link to his new Selfridges store to the west, and the renaming of the station as "Selfridges". Contemporary opposition quashed the idea.
The station has seen several major reconstructions. The first, which saw the original lifts replaced by escalators, a new sub-surface ticket hall and a new façade to the station, designed by the architect Charles Holden, came into use on 8 June 1926. This was demolished with the construction of the "West One" shopping arcade in the 1980s, a period that had also seen the Jubilee Line services to this station commence on 1 May 1979. Some slight elements of the original facade do survive above the eastern entrance to the station.
In 2007 the station underwent a major modernisation, removing the murals installed on the Central line platforms in the 1980s and replacing them with plain white tiles, in a style similar to those when the station opened in 1900

Thanks to Wikipedia for the info on the station.

The architecture on the underground is so diverse dating from the 1920s right up to modern times so there is something there that should appeal to anyone who has the time to just take the time to stop and admire what most people just take for granted.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Turnpike Lane tube station is on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, between Manor House and Wood Green, in Travelcard Zone 3.
It is in the London Borough of Haringey. Opened on 19 September 1932, it was the first Underground station in the Municipal Borough of Tottenham.
Like all stations on the Cockfosters extension, Turnpike Lane set new aesthetic standards not previously seen on the Underground. During the planning period for the extension to Cockfosters, alternate names for this station (North Harringay and Ducketts Green (Ducketts Common is located opposite)) were considered but rejected

The station was designed by the architect Charles Holden and is a well-preserved example of the modernist house style of London Transport in the 1930s. It was listed at Grade II in 1994. The ticket hall is an enormous brick box, with two large ventilation towers, half-sunk into the surrounding ground. Its high walls contain segmented windows that allow natural light to shine far into the station. The effect in late afternoon light is akin to that in a cathedral transept. Two of the street entrances gave access to the tram routes to and from Alexandra Palace via tramway island exits into Turnpike Lane. These tram services were withdrawn in 1938 and replaced by buses, which continued to use the tram islands until 1968 when they were removed.
The sub-surface areas are tiled in biscuit coloured tiles lined with yellow friezes. The booking hall is 12 feet (3.7 metres) below street level. In common with Manor House and Wood Green, the station tunnels have a diameter of 23 feet (7 metres) and were designed for the greater volume of traffic expected. Bounds Green and Southgate have only 21 foot (6.4 metres) diameter platform tunnels. The construction of "suicide pits" between the rails was also innovative. These were built in connection with a system of passageways under the platforms to give access to the track.

Again Thanks to Wikipedia for the info above.

Again this station was designed by Charles Holden, love his style and really want to find out which other stations he designed so I can plan a visit to those at some point.

The 5D mkiii came into its own with the high iso performance especially as I don't have any really fast glass at such a wide angle.

Took my 5D mkiii to London yesterday for the first time since I have owned it. The weather has been nothing less than depressing all year so far so not exactly great for photography. However London underground is always a place of architectural beauty all year round, as this shot of a Art deco style underground station shows very well. This is Gants Hill, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It is served by the Central Line and is in Zone 4. It is the easternmost station to be entirely below ground on the London Underground network.

Construction originally began in the 1930s but was suspended during the Second World War. During the war, the station was used as an air raid shelter and the tunnels as a munitions factory for Plessey electronics. The station was finally completed and opened on 14 December 1947. During planning, the names "Ilford North" and "Cranbrook" were considered.

The station, like many others on the same branch, was designed by notable Tube architect Charles Holden; during the planning period London Underground Holden advised on the construction of the new Moscow Metro, which is why the barrel-vaulted halls of Gants Hill echo many stations on the Russian capital's system.

The station is located beneath Gants Hill roundabout, and reached via the pedestrian subway under the roundabout. There are three escalators from the ticket office to the platforms

Thanks to Wikipedia for the info.

This also gave me a chance to test out the much talked about high ISO performance of the camera. The shot above for instance was shot at ISO 3200 F/8.0 1/50th sec. While there was a little noise in the image it did not destroy it and was easily fixed in Lightroom for a perfectly useable image. This high iso capability is great for low light situations such as the underground where you are not allowed to use a tripod, officially!

This was the first time in a long time I had been to London with my camera but without a tripod, and it made a pleasant change not to have to carry that beast around all day. Its even made me consider purchasing the Joby Gorillapod slr and ball head as a option to keep in my bag for days when I do need a tripod for outdoor work. So if anyone has used one of these would like to hear your thoughts on how practical they are in a real world situation.

With the shots I did take yesterday I have been pleased with the results and look forward to sharing more of the images as I process them.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Been working on a new website lately and I had a specific look in mind. I wanted a site that gave a full screen view of the images which fills your browser when you enter the site. For some of you out there that may have seemed like a simple straight forward thing to do, but for someone that knows really nothing about html or css this posed a challenge for me.

After a little research I came across the Jquery Supersized plugin which when looking at there site seemed to be exactly what I was after so set about trying to use it.

Try as I might I could not figure out how to get my images to display at all!! Very kindly Mark Lee gave me some help and pointed me in the right direction. Managed to figure out how to load the html script into a html editor such as dreamweaver and edit it to my preferences.

I have only managed to get a simple slideshow up and running but I think its looking good so far. I hope to be able to add some more content such as pages and images more links etc but I got to figure that out next!

Thanks again to Mark Lee for his invaluable help please have a look at the site and let me know your thoughts.